The performance of high end computers systems continues to improve as the number of processing cores, and their speed, are increased. Improvements in system interconnect bandwidth can meet increased networking needs. Integration of photonics with electronics provides a solution to achieve this desired bandwidth during data transmission among the processor cores. Silicon photonic chips include both electronic and optical components on a single integrated chip. Various components may be utilized, integrated, or embedded on the silicon photonic chips to enable optical signal coupling between the silicon photonic chips and standard optical fibers.